Solution

We upgraded the client’s Documentum environment from DCTM v7.3 to 22.4, improved the authentication model with OpenText Directory Services, and migrated their workflows to DAW. We began by identifying all custom activity definitions within Process Builder and assessing their functionality, so a fit-for-purpose solution could be designed to manage or recreate each one in the upgraded platform. The workflows themselves were imported using OpenText’s native DAW migration tools, and the underlying code base was rebuilt in a compliant Java version, with server methods from the legacy workflows recoded to conform to the new Java Service signature. Workflow activities relying on those legacy methods were then updated to call the new Java Services – achieved by developing methods to update the underlying XML definitions directly, rather than manually recreating each activity in DAW, which proved significantly quicker and more reliable. We also developed custom web services to enable the client’s application to interact seamlessly with the upgraded workflows.

The engagement spanned over 30 distinct workflows supporting 250 active users. It covered 10 repositories based in the UK plus one large-scale repository in Singapore, together managing more than 20 million documents and over 6TB of data.

Project Success

A key challenge was preserving the client’s custom activities within the workflows. This began with a discovery exercise to identify every custom activity definition in Process Builder and understand what it did, which then informed tailored customisations built directly into the upgraded platform – ensuring no loss of existing functionality. On the technical side, rather than manually rebuilding legacy server-method-based activities inside DAW one by one, the team engineered a method for updating the activities’ XML definitions directly, which proved considerably faster and more reliable at this scale.